The federal government is teaming up with cell phone companies in order to bring weather warnings to new and old cell phones as well as other mobile devices. Various companies are set to roll out the new system over the course of the next couple of weeks.

According to some of the most recent statistics, as many as 83 percent of adult Americans own a cell phone or other form of wireless device, which is why cell phone companies, the FCC and FEMA have decided to use the technology in order to send weather warnings to the general public.

“It’s going to be good because certainly anyway you get specific information out to the public in a fast efficient way, so people can take action, it’s important,” says Dave Nadler from the National Weather Service in Huntsville.

Nor is it just the National Weather Service that can appreciate the advantages offered by a service such as wireless emergency alerts, with local emergency management officials also enthusiastic about the idea. “As can you see from last April, the weather can change in a minute,” says Michael Colbert from Colbert County EMA. “Even though we may have several false calls in a row, you never know when the real one is going to hit.” Wireless emergency alerts means that cell phone owners can use the device’s built-in GPS to be alerted of what is happening locally wherever they are in the country.

Image Courtesy of Apple

The latest report of the American Consumer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) was released yesterday, which revealed the customer satisfaction ratings for wireless carriers and cell phone manufacturers. The survey shows that users of new and old cell phones are most satisfied with the line of iPhones from Apple, with the Blackberry phones from Research In Motion (RIM) being the devices least appreciated by consumers. In terms of wireless carriers, Sprint was the victor, albeit only barely.

The American Consumer Satisfaction Index collects information from more than 70,000 consumers every year. It then uses that information in order to measure the customer satisfaction to more than 225 companies across 47 different industries and 10 economic sectors including the likes of e-commerce, information technology, consumer goods and finance.

The May 2012 of the ACSI includes its yearly data regarding customer satisfaction with the manufacturers of cell phones. This year for the first the Index included companies such as Apple, HTC, LG and RIM in the survey, with Apple coming top of the pile of cell phone manufacturers with 83 out of 100 points, which is actually just a little bit lower than the customer satisfaction rating for the company’s personal computers, which include iPad and Mac products. Eighty-seven points were awarded to Mac computers by ACSI in the September of last year.

In terms of cell phone manufacturers, Apple scored nine points more than the industry average and eight points over LG, Nokia and HTC.

Having access to Wi-Fi while flying is very quickly becoming a common feature on the great majority of modern airliners, but an in-flight cell phone service remains a rarity and it is even banned in some countries, including the United States.  Anyone who takes a flight from New York to London via Virgin Atlantic in the near future however may find that at least some of their fellow passengers will be nattering away on their cell phones somewhere over the Atlantic.  Virgin Atlantic is set to launch a cell phone service on this route and intends to expand it to include another ten routes by the end of this year.

Virgin Atlantic has teamed up with AeroMobile, a subsidiary of Telenor, in order to bring the service to their Airbus 330 planes.  The technology of AeroMobile results in the creation of a low-powered cell phone network on the airplane that routes calls via a satellite network that then relays them to the ground.

The new service certainly will not come cheap however.  The rates for international calls are set to start from $1.29 per minute and will then increase from there depending on where your call is directed.  Travelers will be able to access data, send text messages and make voice calls.

The service will not be available within 250 minutes of United States airspace due to regulations that forbid the use of new and old cell phones on commercial flights.

Although the e-waste Management and Handling Rules 2011 were introduced last year by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, and came into force at the beginning of this month in India, the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) is apparently unable to enforce them because they are currently not ready to be able to do so.  The State Pollution Control Board has so far failed to conduct even a single study to try to determine how to deal with the problem of electronic waste.

Top board officials are however claiming that such a study is on the anvil and will be undertaken in no less than three municipalities this year, and will then be followed by the rest of the state.  The process is expected by the State Pollution Control Board to be completed in around 12 months.

“Only after such a study will we have an idea about the issue and formulate measures to handle the waste in the long run,” says the chairperson of the State Pollution Control Board, K Sajeevan.  “The transformation of Kerala, a consumer rich state, from a repair and use society into a use and throwaway society is pretty recent, and this has been contributing to the accumulation of e-waste.”

The liability of dealing with electronic waste now rests with the makers and dealers of electronic items such as old cell phones, as per the new rule that was recommended by the Ministry.

An elderly couple in New York is dead, with poor cell phone coverage being cited as one of the contributing factors in their demise.  WABC and CBS are reporting that the Manhattan couple was taking a trip to the Catskill Mountains in New York when their vehicle slid off an embankment not far away from Andes, where the pair had a vacation home.

Investigators say that the couple, who have been named as Arthur and Madeleine Morris, attempted to use their old cell phone no less than nine times to gain help, trying to call 911, a neighbor and a relative but all of their efforts proved futile, with none of the calls successfully connecting.

Arthur Morris lost his life when he was crushed by his own vehicle, while Madeleine Morris, who could only walk with the assistance of a cane, managed to make it to the empty home of a neighbor where she died huddled on the porch.  “My mother apparently wrapped herself in a tarp and the weather dropped and she died,” WABC were told by the son of the couple.

The family made the decision to make the tragic story public in order to highlight the danger posed by poor cell phone coverage.  The husband and wife carried a cell phone solely for use in the event of an emergency, only for the device to fail at the moment when they needed it the most.

It is now compulsory in India for the manufacturers of electrical and electronic equipment, including the likes of old cell phones, to collect the electronic waste that is generated by their products. When it comes to the city of Pune, which produces as much as 10 percent of the electronic waste in the entire state of Maharashtra, the move should help to ease the burden of the Pune Municipal Council (PMC).  The council has been finding it increasingly difficult to manage its electronic waste, the waste that is generated by the improper disposal of electrical and electronic equipment.

Despite the repeated orders of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), the Pune Municipal Council has failed to make any substantial provision for the collection and disposal of electronic waste that is generated in the city. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has pointed out that 20,270.6 tons of electronic waste is generated by the state, of which 2585.21 tons come from Pune with 1032 tons generated by the Pimpri Chinchwad area.

The obsolescence rate for new cell phones in Pune is just two years, with the rate for computers being five years, refrigerators seventeen years and televisions fifteen years. Because of this Pune has been identified by the Central Pollution Control Board as one of the top ten cities in India generating electronic waste.

“It is a fact that despite all efforts we have failed to manage our waste,” admits a senior PMC official. “We don’t have a proper mechanism to dispose of e-waste. It is good that the government has now made producers accountable.”

Kyocera Communications is a cell phone provider based in San Diego, California. Recently, it has been awarded the Director’s Recycling Award for environmentalism, an honor distributed by the Department of Environmental Services in the city of San Diego. Remarkably, it is the 12th year in a row that Kyocera Communications has received an award from the city to recognize its contributions to recycling in San Diego.

In fact, Kyocera has earned nearly 20 awards in all, which places it in first place among San Diego businesses. As if that were not enough, the state of California has also recently recognized the firm, presenting it with the WRAP (Waste Reduction Award), which honors business practices that are friendly to the environment. These practices include recycling old cell phones.

Kyocera is dedicated to assisting the environment in any way possible. Eric Anderson, speaking as senior vice president remarked on the issue: “In 2011, more than ever, we worked to help educate others on what they can do as well. We brought an earth-friendly presence to last summer’s Virgin Mobile FREEFest, educating tens of thousands of young music lovers about recycling and the benefits of solar power.” Anderson also commented that Kyocera continues to search for additional ways in which the company’s practices can benefit the environment.

Cell phone users, of course, are spread across the United States. For the vast majority, the most practical option for cell phone recycling is to look online for a firm that recycles old cell phones for cash.

The response to the disposal of electronic waste from residents of the city of Indore in India has been lackluster at best over the course of the ten days since the new rules were implemented, despite the fact that such waste has emerged as one of the biggest threats to the environment.  A major impediment to the success of the new rules appears to be a lack of awareness about the disposal of electronic waste amongst the people.

The task of collecting electronic scrap such as old cell phones, computers, air conditioners, printers, bulbs, refrigerators, tube lights and microwave ovens has been entrusted by the state government to authorized agencies such as Unique Eco Recycler and Hostech Eco Management Pvt Ltd.  However, they say that a lack of scientific awareness amongst ordinary people has resulted in them collecting no electronic waste during the ten days since the introduction of the new e-waste rules in the country.

Between 3000 and 4000 tons of electronic waste is generated by the city each month.  “As of now, not even one percent of e-waste has been collected from the city,” says the general manager of Unique Eco Recycler, Faisal Hussein.  “We have received only six electronic devices.  There has been no initiative from bulk users who make maximum use of electronic equipments for the proposed disposal.” Both he and Asad Warsi, the director of Hostech Eco Management, say that they have received calls from residents however.

As a part of its ongoing attempt to take the message of a green and clean Bahrain to the next generation, Zain Bahrain has extended its electronic waste campaign to the students at the British School of Bahrain. The event consisted of a fashion parade from the Infant School as well as a series of talks from Stuart Fleming, the managing director of well-known environmental consultancy EnviroServe.

Now Zain Bahrain is running the very successful Mobile Phone and e-waste Recycling Campaign for the second year in a row, while EnviroServe is working alongside the telecoms company in order to ensure the responsible and safe disposal of discarded old cell phone handsets and batteries.

The campaign takes the message about a healthy environment and attempts to get people to participate and do their bit for the cause across all countries in the Gulf. The focus is on how ordinary people can play their part by safely disposing of outdated electronic equipment and help to take the first step toward the creation of a safe environment.

“We are consciously targeting the younger generation, children and youth in schools and universities, because they are the inheritors of the planet and also because they are the generation which changes handsets frequently as they keep pace with technology,” says Samya Hussein, the company’s corporate communications manager. “At Zain Bahrain, we have built this campaign around the knowledge that electronic waste can be an important source for raw material… but if discarded improperly e-waste causes environmental damage and can be a toxic pollutant.”

A cell phone thief was in the wrong place at the wrong time when his stolen device rang whilst police were questioning him and the voice on the other end was that of none other than the legitimate owner.

Sgt Wayne Mystar, the public information officer for the Police Service, announced at the daily news briefing on Tuesday at the Police Administration Building in the Port-of-Spain that police approached a man from Diego Martin after they noticed suspicious behavior on his part.  “Keen powers of observation by officers of the CID on patrol at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital detected a man acting suspiciously,” Mystar told reporters.  “The officers challenged the man and began searching him.”

That was the point when the thief’s luck really ran out.  A cell phone on his person began to ring at that very moment, and his reluctance to answer the device further increased the suspicion of the officers concerned.  The police themselves answered the ringing cell phone, to find the legitimate owner of the stolen cell phone on the other end.  “The police became suspicious and, on answering the phone, a voice on the other end indicated that the phone was stolen,” Mystar noted.  Officers later established that the cell phone had been left by its owner in his vehicle in the car park of the hospital, from which it had been stolen.

The 21-year-old Diego Martin resident was later formally charged.